War Studies on the Board of Peace: A N ew Perspectives Roundtable

This roundtable examines President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as an emergent institution for post-war Gaza. It situates the Board in the aftermath of Hamas’s attacks and Israel’s military campaign, and within the longer struggle over occupation, security, and Palestinian self-determination. Bringing together ten academics from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, it asks what form of authority is being built through the Board, whose interests it serves, and whether those expected to live under it would recognise its work as peace. The contributions show that the Board should not be evaluated by its name or ambition alone. Its historical precedents, legal ambiguities, strategic messaging, conflict-resolution claims, and operational machinery point to a deeper problem: personalised leadership and donor-driven design risk moving peacebuilding away from political settlement and towards externally managed stabilisation. The roundtable recognises that any post-war arrangement must address Israeli security claims as well as Palestinian self-determination, but argues that security management cannot substitute for a political settlement recognised by Palestinians themselves. The Board may mobilise resources and political attention, but without such a political horizon, it risks producing managed insecurity recast as peace.